DUBLIN AND CARLOW TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.

Dublin and Carlow will have to do all again as they couldn’t be separated tonight in an exciting Leinster Championship tussle in St David’s CBS in Artane.

The sides were level at halftime on four points apiece but Dublin had much the better of the opening thirty minutes but were unlucky with a number of shots that sailed narrowly wide.

The sides swapped two points each in the opening quarter of the second half before Dublin struck for the opening goal of the game scored by Sarah Brennan with a shot from distance that deceived the Carlow keeper.

The girls in blue followed that up with a point by Nicole Burnett to lead by four and at this stage looked in control. But two quick fire goals from Aoife Barcoe and Rachel Bible turned the game on its head again and put Carlow two in front with the clock ticking down.

But Dublin were not going down without a fight and hit the last two points of the second half scored by Nicole Burnett and Chloe Ni Cheallaigh and the game headed to extra-time.

After sixty minutes of full blooded play both teams would have been excused for dropping the intensity and pace of the game in extra-time, but it’s a testament to their fitness levels and preparation of both teams as they continued to go hammer and thongs at each other for the extra twenty minutes.

Carlow led by a point at the end of the first half of extra-time thanks to points from Anna Breen and Lorna Drea. Dublin’s reply to those points came from a Nicole Burnett free just before the whistle for the turnaround.

Carlow stretched their lead to two with a Anna Breen free, but Dublin got on top and drove at the Carlow defence and made their dominance count with three excellent points in a row from Sarah Brennan, Aisling Andrews and Aoife Deegan to put the Dubs in front again.

But with four minutes left to play Carlow drew level once again with a fine point from Lauren Kelly. Both sides went all out for a winner, but some excellent defending from both teams kept the sides deadlocked and they will have to do it all again in the replay next Wednesday evening at 7.30pm in Carlow.